Arvind Singhal Sarah Lubjuhn

Social Justice Wisdom Series, 2011, Number 2.

Birthing a Global Movement

to Conserve Mother Earth

Hugging Trees in the Himalayas1

The Social Justice Wisdom Series is a publication of the The Social Justice Initiative (SJI),

Department of Communication, The University of Texas at El Paso. SJI is an action-based

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For more information, please visit

http://academics.utep.edu/comm4socialjustice; or email Arvind Singhal asinghal@utep.edu

or Lucia Dura ldura@miners.utep.edu

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One way to understand the sentiments behind

hugging trees is to read the simple prose of Shel

Silverstein’s 1964 book, The Giving Tree.

Translated in over 30 languages, and one

of the best-selling children’s books of all time,

The Giving Tree2 tells the story of a relationship

between a young boy and a tree3. The tree

provides the boy branches on which to swing,

shade in which to sit, fruits to eat, branches with

which to build a home. As the boy grows older

he requires more and more of the tree. The tree in

acts of selfless love willingly gives him what he

asks for, even letting the boy cut it down so he can

build a boat to sail in. The boy leaves the tree, now

a stump. Many years later, the boy, now

an old man, returns and the tree notes that it has nothing else to offer. The man says he does need

much now, just a quiet place to sit and rest. The

tree happily offers its stump.

Is it the nature of the tree to give? Is it the

nature of the human being to take?

Earth provides enough to satisfy everyman’s need, but not every man’s greed.

Mahatma Gandhi4

The issue, is not development vs. environment. It is extinction vs. survival.

Sunderlal Bahuguna5

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The Chipko (literally “hugging” in Hindi) movement

in India to conserve mother earth came to public

attention in April 1973 when a group of women in

Mandal village, located in the mountainous Himalayan

region of Uttarkhand, “hugged” trees in order to prevent

them from being felled6. In the next several years, more

than a dozen confrontations between women and

lumberjacks occurred in Uttarkhand -- all non-violent

and effective, enshrining forever the term “tree

hugger” in conservation parlance7.

In 1974, an especially notable confrontation occurred

in Reni Village of Uttarkhand where a women’s

group led by Gaura Devi blocked an army of lumber

jacks singing: “This forest is our mother’s home; we

Gaura Devi: “Cut me down before you cut down a tree”

will protect it with all our might”. They admonished

the lumberjacks: “If the forest is cut, the soil will be

washed away. Landslides and soil erosion will bring

floods, which will destroy our fields and homes, our

water sources will dry up, and all the other benefits we

get from the forest will be finished8.”

Stories and photographs of women’s bodies in

Mandal and Reni villages, interposed between the

trees and the gleaming axes of timber cutters, spurred

word-of-mouth buzz in neighboring communities, and

made interesting news copy for local, national, and

global media. The notion of “Cut me down before you

cut down a tree,” generated a lot of media coverage,

bringing with it a new humanized morality to abstract

environmental concerns9.

Two local activists -- Chandi Prasad Bhatt, a

Marxist, and Sundarlal Bahuguna, both inspired by

Mahatma Gandhi, led the Chipko movement, albeit

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somewhat independently10. They both exuded

characteristics that fuelled the spread of Chipko bringing it

to the national (and international) consciousness. Well

networked with journalists, they both wielded a prolific

pen, writing with ease in both Hindi and English and

thus mobilizing their rural and urban elite constituencies11.

Chandi Prasad Bhatt was greatly inspired

by Gandhian follower Jayaprakash Narayan, whom

he met in 1956 in Uttarkhand, and felt compelled to

respond to Narayan’s call for serving the nation. As a

youth leader in Uttarakhand, Bhatt led various initiatives

premised on Gandhian ideals, organizing villages to be

self-sufficient, promoting socio-economic development,

and propagating moral and ethical public conduct,

including the non-consumption of alcohol and cigarettes.

Sundarlal Bahuguna was also greatly inspired

by Gandhian ideals and became active in the freedom

movement in 1940 at the age of 12, being mentored by

an older friend Sridev Suman. Like Bhatt, Bhaguna

Chipko activist Chandi Prasad Bhatt

was also charismatic, credible, and spoke forcefully in

both Hindi and the local Garhwali dialect.

In the Uttarkhand region, the communication media

underlying the Chipko movement was remarkably

small-scale and low-tech, emphasizing local knowledge,

local resources, local leadership, local language, and

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Activist Sundarlal Bahuguna (Center) on his quest to save the mountain and the forests

locally relevant methods of communication12. Poets

and singers were frontline motivators, writing

verse and songs for public performance to inspire

grassroots participation. Ghanshyam Sailani emerged

as the poet laureate of Chipko, penning verses such as

“Let us protect and plant the treesGo awaken the villages

And drive away the axemen.”

Poetry, singing, and public performances to inspire participation in the Chipko movement

When women of Uttarkhand heard that the

lumberjacks were on their way, they would sing

such songs and walk toward the forest. The chorus

would get louder and strident when the timber-cutters

arrived. The women would hold hands and form a

circle around the tree, hugging it as a group. What

could the lumberjacks do? They were rendered

powerless even with their axes and saws.

The Chipko movement gathered rapid

momentum as it rode the wave of spirituality. Bhagwad

kathas (large prayer meetings) were routinely organized

in forest areas of Uttarkhand, emphasizing that God

resides in every living being, including in trees. To protect

the trees was a sacred act, blending environmental

science with deeply-ingrained spirituality.

Chipko’s appeal was uniquely wide-ranging.

Thus the movement was co-opted, shaped, and

popularized by groups as diverse as local and global

journalists, grassroots activists, environmentalists,

Gandhians, spiritual leaders, politicians, social change

practitioners, and feminists. The feminist movement

popularized Chipko, pointing out that poor rural

women walk long distances to collect fuel and fodder,

and thus are the frontl ine vict ims of forest

destruction13. The Gandhians accentuated the Chipko

movement through symbolic protests such as prayers,

fasting, and padayatras (ritual foot-marches).

Further, Chipko is synonymous with the growth

of ecology-conscious journalism in India and around

the world.

The media that the Chipko movement generated

went beyond the notion of just saving trees but, rather,

was imbued with the belief that the forest belonged to

the people, and only they could ensure its wise use14.

And, as the movement spread, and generated more

media, it humanized environmental concerns for local,

national, and global audiences.

In India, the media generated by Chipko put

the notion of saving forests squarely on the political

and public agenda of the country. Sundarlal Bahuguna

brought the movement into national and international

prominence by undertaking a 5,000-kilometer

trans-Himalaya march in the early-1980s, gathering

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support for the Chipko movement one village at a

time, and presenting the peoples‘ call to save India’s

forests to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Subsequently,

Mrs. Gandhi’s government legislated a 15-year ban on

felling of green trees growing over 1,000 meters above

sea level in the Himalayan forests. This decree was

extended to the tree-covered forests of India’s Western

Ghat and the Vidhya mountain ranges. Mrs. Gandhi

hailed the Chipko movement as representing India’s

“morally conscience” gift to the world15.

Tree-hugging caught on all over the world,

a symbolic act to conserve and honor Mother Earth.

Thousands of little Chipkos sprouted everywhere. For

instance, a German youth organization, Grüne Jugend

Freising, established a tree-hugging campaign with the

motto: “Preserve, what preserves you”16. In Netherlands,

Princess Irene, launched a heartfelt movement to put

issues of environmental protection, climate change

and nature preservation on the political and public

agenda. The simple act of tree-hugging had caught

the imagination of conservationists, activists, and

artists on a global scale.

Environmental artists Agnieszka Gradzik

and Wiktor Szostalo took a novel approach in creating

Chipko art. Gradzik and Szostalo ask local participants to

gather branches, twigs, vines, and flowers, and

fashions these materials into groups of natural figures

“hugging” trees17. The artists’ stated intention is to

“remind us that we humans are still very much a

part of our natural surroundings18.” Gradzik’s and

Szostalo’s art installations have occurred in cities all

around the globe, including an exhibit she fashioned

in India with the pioneering women of Uttarkhand

who gave birth to the Chipko movement.

The Chipko movement, born in India, has inspired

many initiatives and activists to use the symbol of

tree-hugging to conserve and preserve our environment.

The symbol reminds people to honor the “giving” tree

and treat it with love and care as Mother Earth.

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Gradzik’s and Szostalo’s Tree Hugging Art Installation

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References

Bhatt, C. P. (1992). The Chipko Andolan. Forest conservation based on people’s power. Environment and

Urbanization, 2(1): pp. 7-16.

Guha, R. (1989). The Unquiet Woods. Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya. New Delhi: Oxford

University Press.

Routledge, P. (1993). The Chipko Movement, Terrains of Resistance. Nonviolent Social Movements and Contestation of

Place in India. Westport, CT.: Praeger.

Shah, H. (2008). Communication and Marginal Sites: The Chipko Movement and the Dominant Paradigm of

Development Communication. Asian Journal of Communication, 18(1): pp. 32-46.

Shepard, M. (1987). Gandhi Today: A Report on Mahatma Gandhi’s Successors. Washington, D.C.: Seven Locks Press.

Shepard, M. (1982). Chipko. North India’s Tree Huggers. In S. S. Kunwar (Ed.), Hugging the Himalayas. The

Chipko Experience. Gopeshwar, Uttar Pradesh, India: Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal.

Silverstein, S. (1964). The Giving Tree. NY: HarperCollins.

Singhal, A., & Lubjuhn, S. (2010). Chipko Environmental Movement Media (India). In J.D.H. Downing (Ed.)

Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media (pp. 91-92). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.

8Social Justice Wisdom Series, 2011, Number 2.

Dr. Arvind Singhal is the Samuel Shirley and Edna Holt Marston Endowed Professor of Communication and Director of the Social Justice Initiative in UTEP’s Department of Communication. He is also appointed as the William J. Clinton Distinguished Fellow at the Clinton School of Public Service, Little Rock, Arkansas. Singhal teaches and conducts research in the diffusion of innovations, the positive deviance approach, organizing for social change, and the entertainment-education strategy. His email is: asinghal@utep.edu

* * * * *

Sarah Lubjuhn is a Doctoral Candidate, Faculty of Humanities, Institute for Communication Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstraße 11, 45117 Essen, Germany. She is deeply interested in issues of sustainability, environmental conservation, and the entertainment-education communication strategy. Her email is: sarah_lubjuhn@web.de

9Social Justice Wisdom Series, 2011, Number 2.

1. This case and some of the featured quotes draw upon Singhal and Lubjuhn (2010). Photos are taken from

Mark Shepard’s website http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/GT_Chipko.html where permission

is granted for use: “May be freely copied and shared for any noncommercial purpose as long as no text is

altered or omitted.”

2. Silverstein (1964). Also, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Tree

3. The summary of the story is adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Tree

4. Quoted in http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/GT_Chipko.html

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunderlal_Bahuguna

6. Routledge (1993).

7. Shepard (1982; 1987).

8. Bhatt (1992, p. 66)

9. Guha (1989).

10. Shah (2008).

11. Shah (2008).

12. Shah (2008).

13. Shah (2008).

14. Guha (1989).

15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunderlal_Bahuguna

16. source: www.sz-jugendseite.de/js-texte.php?showid=2141

17. source: www.treehuggerproject.com

18. source: www.treehuggerproject.com/mission.html

Endnotes

10Social Justice Wisdom Series, 2011, Number 2.

Sarah E. Ryan and Annie Balocating (2010). “We Snuck up on the Roof….”: The Widows of Duhozanye Rebuild their Community. Social Justice Wisdom Series, Number 1, pp. 1-8. The University of Texas at El Paso: Department of

Communication, Social Justice Initiative.

Lucia Dura, Arvind Singhal, & Eliana Elias (2008). Listener as Producer: Minga Peru’s Intercultural Radio Educative Project in the Peruvian Amazon. Social Justice Dialogue and Publication Series (pp. 1-26). The University of Texas at El Paso: Department of Communication, Social Justice Initiative and Sam Donaldson

Center for Communication Studies.

Arvind Singhal and Lucia Dura (2008). Listening and Healing: An Assessment of Minga Peru’s Intercultural Radio Educative Project to Prevent and Control Domestic Violence and HIV/AIDS. Social Justice Dialogue and Publication Series (pp. 1-56). The University of Texas at El Paso: Department of Communication, Social Justice Initiative and Sam Donaldson Center for

Communication Studies.

Arvind Singhal and Elizabeth Rattine-Flaherty (2008). Pencils and Photos as Tools of Communicative Research and Praxis: Analyzing Minga Peru’s Quest for Social Justice in the Amazon. Social Justice Dialogue and Publication Series (pp. 1-31). The University of Texas at El Paso: Department of Communication, Social Justice Initiative and Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies.

Arvind Singhal and Lucia Dura (2009). Protecting Children from Exploitation and Trafficking: Using the Positive Deviance Approach in Uganda and Indonesia. Washington D.C.: Save the Children in association with The University of Texas

at El Paso, Department of Communication, Social Justice Initiative.

Social Justice InitiativeAttention: Arvind Singhal

Department of CommunicationUniversity of Texas at El Paso

El Paso, TX 79968Email: socialjustice@utep.edu

www.academics.utep.edu/comm4socialjustice